Legion of Super-Heroes #38 – “The Greatest Hero of Them All” – Paul Levitz/Greg LaRocque/Mike DeCarlo, Arne Starr
This one starts with some Legionnaires (Brainiac 5, Blok, Invisible Kid, Sun Boy, plus Superboy) returning from the present to Superboy’s past in Smallville. They ran into the present-day Superman (in his own title) and found that he isn’t the grown-up version of Superboy as everyone previously thought. Brainy theorizes that Time Trapper has somehow taken two completely contradictory time-streams and made them interact, which should be
impossible. Superboy decides to tell his friends what prompted him to turn again them (as we saw last issue). The anti-matter wave from the Crisis came to Smallville and nothing Superboy could do affected it. As it started to destroy parts of Smallville, Time Trapper showed up to offer Superboy a deal. Speaking of Time Trapper, he’s in Smallville with Ultra Boy, Cosmic Boy, Night Girl, and Mon-El, frozen in stasis fields by Superboy last issue. They’re watching Suprboy tell the others what happened and Time Trapper confirms it, saying he used his powers to isolate Superboy’s Smallville from the effects of the Crisis in exchange for Superboy gathering Legionnaires for him. 
Apparently, Time Trapper considers himself the custodian of the time-stream and resents the Legionnaires for travelling through time. He says that every time they travelled back to Smallville (or Superboy travelled forward to see them), he was actually shunting them into an alternate reality, letting them think they were going into their own past. Now Time Trapper wants to end time itself and capturing the Legionnaires is just the first step. Back in the 30th Century, Dawnstar’s reaction to Wildfire’s new humanoid form isn’t quite what he’d hoped; she still doesn’t want to be his girlfriend. In Smallville (or the alternate reality equivalent), Superboy brings the four Legionnaires back, pretending they’re in stasis. Time Trapper tells him to kill them if he
wants Smallville protected forever, but Superboy refuses and the Legionnaires attack. They free their friends from stasis and all go after Time Trapper, but he’s so powerful they can’t really hurt him. Superboy ends up accidentally smashing the device that kept his world isolated from the Crisis. In the 30th Century, Polar Boy is second-guessing his decisions as leader, but Dream Girl gives him a pep talk (and flirts a bit, naturally). In the alternate past, Superboy and the Legionnaires are dealing with the damage caused by the anti-matter wave. Time Trapper laughs off their efforts and gloats that this 
world will cease to exist, but admits its demise won’t affect the real universe. Time Trapper vanishes and Brainy tries to fix the machine he was using to protect Smallville and its world, but it’s too complex even for him. Superboy uses his own body to replace a missing piece of the machine, channelling energy through long enough to move his world into a pocket universe where it will be safe from the Crisis effect, but isolated from true reality. Superboy takes a lot of damage saving his world and the Legionnaires want to get him back to their time to help him, but he insists on guiding the time bubble himself to keep Time Trapper from interfering. When they reach the 30th Century, Superboy’s injuries overwhelm him and he dies. Even though they know this isn’t the “real” Superman, he was real to them and they give him a proper send-off with all the Legionnaires in attendance. 
This story was obviously done in response to Superman’s new post-Crisis origin, which didn’t include Superboy. So there had to be an explanation for Superboy’s presence in the Legion for all those years and this is what they came up with; it does technically fix the problem, but it’s kinda convoluted. And apparently this new status quo means that time travel isn’t a viable option for the Legion anymore, all their previous jaunts having been fake-outs by Time Trapper.
New Teen Titans #35 – “Crystal Chaos” – Marv Wolfman/Pat Broderick/Romeo Tanghal
This one starts with Dick (Nightwing) Grayson and Starfire at a dance club. Starfire asks Dick to move in with her, but he’s too old-fashioned and gets freaked out. Not far away, Raven is showing Cyborg and Jericho her new studio apartment. Cyborg figures it’ll be an overpriced shithole, but it’s actually pretty nice and not too expensive. Raven offers to use her new emotion-manipulating powers to takeaway Cyborg’s pain, but he says he prefers to stick with reality, no matter how bad it is. Elsewhere, two lovers (Arthur and Evelyn) are discussing Arthur’s powers and how best to use them. Apparently, Arthur died on the operating
table and revived miraculously, but now he can alter reality with just a thought. He figures he should use the powers to help people and make the world a better place, but Evelyn just wants to be rich and have lots of stuff. She finally threatens to leave if Arthur doesn’t start making them rich, so he agrees. They appear downtown, dressed in funky outfits, and immediately attract a crowd. Arthur says he can see into people’s minds and give them what they most desire, but everyone is skeptical, thinking there’s a catch. Evelyn tells the crowd they represent the American Dream and Arthur demonstrates by picking a random guy from the crowd (Marvin Handler) and making his fantasies 
(which seem to involve banging a bunch of hot women) come true … at least in his own mind. I’m not sure if Arthur can literally make stuff happen, or just make people believe it happened. Either way, it seems to make Marvin happy. That opens the floodgates and everyone wants their dreams to come true—and they’re willing to pay for it. That gets Evelyn what she wants, but in a way that’s altruistic, so Arthur is happy. Except there are so many people, some with merely selfish desires, but others with real problems they want fixed (like the guy who was born deformed, or the woman who wants to talk to her dead daughter). The pressure starts getting to Arthur after a while. Meanwhile, the Titans are discussing their financial situation and we learn most of their expenses are covered by the team members themselves. They also talk about how to get
the public to like them more and Raven offers to use her powers, but Wonder Girl points out that manipulating people into liking them wouldn’t be ethical (and the affection wouldn’t be real). Later, Raven is meditating and senses Arthur’s powers going out of control. The demands of so many people have overwhelmed him, making his power go crazy and construct a giant crystal mound that takes Arthur over. The Titans are ready to smash it, but Raven says that’ll kill him and uses her own emotional powers to counteract Arthur’s, destroying the crystal and bringing him back. His powers are gone now and Raven tells Evelyn that power must be tempered with wisdom.
Suicide Squad #5 – “The Flight of the Firebird” – John Ostrander/Luke McDonnell/Bob Lewis
This one starts in Moscow, with several Soviet leaders (including Mikhail Gorbachev) discussing what to do with a dissident named Zoya Trigorin. She’s been writing allegorical stories that make the USSR look bad and is presently incarcerated in a psych hospital in a GULAG. Gorbachev thinks they should free her so she can’t become a martyr, but another official (Zastrow) proposes a trade for one of their people held by the Americans. Gorbachev likes that idea, thinking Trigorin’s own meagre talent will cause her to be forgotten once she’s defected. Coincidentally, the Suicide Squad are planning to bust Trigorin out
of the GULAG, with Penguin using his crafty criminal mind to plan the job (although he’s not happy when he learns he’s going along on the mission). Rick Flag isn’t happy about the mission either, since they’re doing it on behalf of the government to score political points against the Soviets. He’s also worried about Enchantress being on the mission, since every time June moon changes into her alter ego, she’s wilder and harder to control, like that evil side is taking over. We get a glimpse of that as June almost pounds her psychiatrist during a session. A couple weeks later, they head into Russia undercover 
(except Flag, who goes under a diplomatic visa in his own name). The Squad members (Nightshade, Bronze Tiger, Deadshot, Enchantress, and Penguin) replace members of the American Embassy staff and then change into other disguises to get to the hospital where Trigorin is being held. Penguin’s plan involves Enchantress taking Trigorin’s place long enough for the others to get her out of the USSR. Inside the hospital, a doctor orders Trigorin brought to his office for a session, eve though it’s the middle of the night. The orderly (Spassky) is suspicious, but can’t refuse the doctor’s orders. Turns out the doctor is Nemesis undercover and he tells Trigorin
they’re going to help her escape. Enchantress and Nightshade show up and Enchantress turns herself into a duplicate of Trigorin. But Trigorin doesn’t actually want to defect, reasoning that being in Russia forces the world to pay attention to her writing (which is why Gorbachev wants to free her, so everyone will forget about her). Before Nemesis and Nightshade can figure out what to do (like forcing Trigorin to defect against her will), Spassky returns, sees the intruders, and yells for the guards.